New and Shiny

In order to keep things from getting stale, i decided to change the look of my blog. Nothing super fancy or out of the ordinary, but the pictures i post up kept getting swallowed by the archive links on the right side, so did a switch to the left side. More picture goodness for everyone. And i added links on the left-hand side. Venturing into html-land. Not exactly what i'm good at. But i guess it's always good to try and learn new things. Coding was never something i did particularly well. I could do enough to pass my classes (albiet, very poorly, but still passing). If you hate it, like it, are ambivalent, too bad. But feel free to post your hate-mail in the comments section.

But in all seriousness, "new and shiny" really does define this point in my life. There is so much that's going on that's breaking new ground and gives me reason to look foward to brighter days. There's a steady income that's not ending because summer is ending (thank the never-ending summer internships for that), no more homework or tests to ruin the flow of my week, and besides, fall is knocking on the door. No more hot summer days. Just cool, mild weather again. And winter is not too far behind, which means more snowboarding is on the horizon. And although i'm doing my best to live up to the engineer stereotype, i'm beginning to learn peoples names at church and avoiding the anti-social streak. Hey, that's what we engineers do best.

Which brings me to the crux of the post. KCPC is about to move into our "new and shiny" building. A structure of concrete and steel, 4 walls and a roof. But it's so much more. It's a place that for 7 years, 7 looooooooong years, we've all prayed about and hoped to see one day. We as a church have endured (at least me personally) a catholic church and a mortuary. It was always interesting to go to church while we were at the catholic church because we always had company while we were worshiping. Not in the sense that random people would come in, or that I felt like God was present (which he always is), but there's statues of various saints and other religious figures around. It's like a built-in audience. It was always an experience and adventure to go to church, wondering which 'statuette' i would sit next to.

If you ever wonder if God has a sense of humor, i firmly believe he does. Otherwise, why would he have so graciously provided us the mortuary where we currently call 'home'? Not that it's a bad home, but the irony of it so thick that you can almost taste it. We are a body of worshipers who glorify the one true God, the giver of all life, and here we are worshiping in a building that deals with nothing but death. If you have ever had the opportunity to venture downstairs into the basement, you would find the body-preperation room where all the walls are tiled for easy cleaning, the coffin elevator, and the giant scale meant to weigh the coffin+deceased. It's not exactly the friendliest place to be at night. At times, I swear that the building is alive with all the random and weird noises going on. While i play drums in the em hall, there's this small vent in the wall that blows air directly at me. It's pretty freaky since I don't ever recall having that vent "work", and the air it spews is kind of musty and stale. But all ghoulish nonsense aside, the mortuary has served us faithfully for the past 2+ years. I'll definitely miss that building when we leave, but i doubt i'll ever have this huge surge of nostalgia to go back and visit.

We're so close to moving in to 50 Northridge. We've been so close for so long it's almost frustrating. This week, it was announced that we have received a verbal permit. There's only one more thing to test with the water system before we're allowed in. That test should happen this week. It could be this weekend or next before we get in. It's really exciting, but i feel that it's been hyped up so long, i'm starting to get cynical about the whole thing. But why? I should really be ecstatic and hoping and praying everyday to see that we get in the building. I'm going to get a soundwall around me so i can bang the drums as loud as i want without making the first 3-4 rows deaf from the volume. Everything is going to be new. The sound system. The pews. The carpet. The walls. The windows. Everything. But yet, i'm filled with doubt and skepticism. But the building exists. I saw it with my own 2 eyes. I touched the walls with my hands. I got dirt from the windows on my hands. It's tangible proof that we're almost there. But yet, i'm holding that attitude "i'll believe it when it happens". Why do i doubt? What is it about human nature that makes it so hard to believe? The building is there!! It's real!!




Yet i can't bring myself to believe that it's gonna happen anytime soon. The move in date has been pushed back so many times, it's hard to get excited. It's become almost anti-climactic.

Right now, my lack of faith is appalling. My attitude needs to go from old and busted to new and shiny.